PHOENIX 鈥 蜜柚直播ns who contend they were wrongfully convicted could get a new way of trying to exonerate themselves.
Without dissent, the House Committee on Criminal Justice Reform approved legislation Wednesday that would set up procedures by which an inmate could seek forensic examination of items not tested at the time of trial because the technology was not available.
Senate Bill 1469, already approved by the Senate, now goes to the full House.
There is precedent for the proposal by Sen. Warren Petersen, R-Gilbert.
In 2010 lawmakers agreed to allow someone who has been convicted to ask a court to conduct DNA testing of evidence from a crime scene. That law also allows a judge to put the evidence into a national database to see if there are any 鈥渉its.鈥
But Timothy Sparling with 蜜柚直播 Attorneys for Criminal Justice said that does not cover a whole host of evidence that now can be examined with current technology, ranging from forensic analysis of fingerprints and hair to gunshot residue. That could provide new evidence that someone is wrongfully imprisoned, he told lawmakers.
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A look at 蜜柚直播 in the early days from the air or from the tallest building. Produced by Rick Wiley / 蜜柚直播
The testing would not be automatic.
First, an inmate would need to convince a court there is a 鈥渞easonable probability鈥 he or she would not have been prosecuted or convicted if tests had shown they were not the guilty party. The court could appoint counsel for those who are indigent.
SB 1469 also would require that the evidence still exists and is in a condition to allow the new forensic testing to be conducted.
Prosecutors would have an opportunity to object.
If testing was ordered, it would be up to the court to decide who pays for it.
The kind of testing that would be done here is the same that police already use to solve 鈥渃old cases,鈥 said Hope DeLap of the 蜜柚直播 Justice Project. But in this situation, it could end up leading to someone鈥檚 exoneration.
She told lawmakers the change in law should not lead to a flood of requests.
DeLap estimated that her organization gets about 400 requests a year for help by inmates who say they were wrongfully convicted. That is out of nearly 37,000 inmates behind bars in the state.
Beyond that, she said, the number of instances where the evidence remains available, and was not already examined, is even smaller.
Sparling hopes for at least one change when the measure goes to the full House.
He pointed out that the bill, as worded, would allow testing only if the technology did not exist at the time. But Sparling said that leaves out cases where the technology was available but the testing was just not done.
